


and these fair stars they are your eyes

by windychimes



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-02
Updated: 2012-12-02
Packaged: 2017-11-20 03:02:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/580576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windychimes/pseuds/windychimes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What Ishimaru misses most about the outside world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and these fair stars they are your eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Set one year pre-grame.

“Oowada-kun, what do you miss most about the outside world?” It’s been five days since they’ve been locked up, five days since many more days to come. They’re all a little stir crazy, a lot stir crazy, and they pass the time by crashing in each other’s rooms. Mondo turns the question in his head a few times and speaks.

“Definitely riding. Shit, when you’re going one-ten down the highway and the wind’s against your face and you can smell the sea… ain’t nothing in the world like that.” His gang too, his gang too much, but if he mentions them he’ll just start crying. But crying won’t bring his gang back. Crying won’t bring anything back. “What about you? Y’gotta do more than study.”

Ishimaru’s brows are furrowed and knitted up tight and Mondo can already hear the reprimand: _Oowada-kun, how could you go so fast? That’s illegal! I hope you were wearing your helmet!_ but instead Ishimaru just hums and his facial expression turns to deep thought, mouth a thin line and eyes closed. Fuck, when did Mondo start noticing shit like that? His chest feels weird and his face feels tight and when Ishimaru opens his mouth to speak Mondo focuses on that instead.

“The answer is obvious, isn’t it? The stars!” Ishimaru claps his hands, infinitely pleased with himself. “There’s nothing more majestic and inspiring than the night sky! I tried to count all the stars once but I… I wasn’t good enough…”

Ishimaru’s face is scrunching up now, eyes squeezed shut and lip pulled up and oh no no no he is _not_ going to cry right now. If Ishimaru starts crying Mondo’s going to start crying too and Mondo’s already done enough crying to last him a lifetime. He punches Ishimaru in the arm to distract him and musses his hair. “C’mon, no crying. You can count the stars when everything’s back to normal.” Will things ever be back to normal? “So quit whining and be a man.”

“I’m plenty man!” Ishimaru squawks and for a moment everything is normal as Ishimaru pushes Mondo off the bed and they wrestle.

Mondo’s not one for knocking but when it comes to Yamada’s room, it’s pretty fucking necessary. “You better not be doing anything perverted in there!” Mondo yells as he pounds on the door. “I’m comin in so you better not have any of your creepy porn out.”

Mondo gives him to the count of five before barging and he’s eternally grateful when Yamada doesn’t have any of his weird porn shit lying around. The room still gives him the creeps but at least there isn’t any nasty pictures of that anime chick in view. Yamada’s already sweating bullets and he pulls at his shirt collar with a gulp. “O-Oowada Mondo-dono, what are you—”

“Cut the crap, I don’t want to fuckin talk to you.” Yamada looks like he’s about to piss himself and Mondo would be lying if he said he doesn’t miss that fear. Ooh, the fear he and the Crazy Diamonds could make people feel... Damn, he really does miss his gang. “I need you to do something for me. A favor, you see?” Mondo cracks his knuckles and Yamada sweats even harder. “You do this for me, and I don’t bust your ugly face in. Got it?”  
  
“Y-Yes Oowada Mondo-dono! Anything you say!” Yamada bows low. “What can I do for you?”

“Good, good. Now, I heard you got some art skill. If you could just draw me one thing…”

It looks good. It looks really, really, _really_ good. If Yamada wasn’t such a piece of shit, Mondo would’ve given him a proper thank you. Instead Mondo just gives him a clap on the back and a promise not to beat his face in anytime soon and runs off to Ishimaru’s room. Right now is when Ishimaru usually trains ( _fuck why does he know his schedule so well_ ) so Mondo should have enough time to put it up. If his hands would just stop sweating this would be a lot easier; the damn tape isn’t sticking and he doesn’t have enough and aw crap he forgot to take off his shoes before standing on Ishimaru’s bed. Ishimaru is going to throw a fit for the ages. Mondo is just about done, just putting tape on the corners, when suddenly the door flies open and Mondo damn near has a heart attack.  
  
“Stop, intruder alert! I’ll—” Ishimaru stops mid sentences and tilts his head to the side. “Oowada-kun? What are you doing in my room? It’s improper to enter someone’s bedroom when they’re not there!”

“Shut the fuck up you dumbass!” No no no that’s not what he meant to say and does Ishimaru look kind of hurt and oh fuck this is why he always strikes out. He jumps off the bed and grabs Ishimaru by the arm before dragging him over, holding on a little too tight.

“I got ya something,” he says, voice still too loud. “I hope you like it.”

Ishimaru’s quiet a moment, too many moments, as he stares up at the space above his bed. Yamada really did do a great job on it; taped to the ceiling is a large piece of paper colored a deep blue with twinkling stars in silver and gold. The purple of the milky way is hidden beneath the stars, the planets glow in the distance, dark rainbows of galaxies unknown peek out along the edges of the paper, and the moon shines brightest above. It really is like looking up into the night sky and for the span of a breath Mondo forgets they’re trapped in some horrible little school while the apocalypse rolls on by outside.

When an eternity passes in silence Mondo glances at Ishimaru to check his reaction. It’s rare for Ishimaru to be this quiet and when Mondo looks over he sees tears rolling down Ishimaru’s cheeks, his face pulled up tight in an attempt to be quiet. Now this is something Mondo’s never seen—every time Ishimaru cries, which is frequently, it’s always over the top with big blubbering tears and a snotty nose and wails like a wounded animal. But now… now it’s just weird and Mondo can’t tell if this is good or bad.

“Aw shit, do you not like it? I’ll go beat Yamada’s ass for this, he said it would be—”

“ _Oowada-kun_!” Ishimaru throws his arms around Mondo and pulls him into the tightest hug Mondo’s ever had. Another moment of silence passes before Ishimaru breaks down sobbing, wailing into Mondo’s chest and getting his shirt wet. But Mondo can’t even be mad, he can’t even be annoyed, because Ishimaru’s whispered mantra of _thank you thank you thank you_ is enough to bring a big doofy smile to his face.

“Hey, what’d I say about crying? Quit blubbering and let’s count some stars. You said you wanted to count them all, right? I bet we could count all of these.”

That’s the cheesiest thing he’s ever said by far but Ishimaru finally locks eyes with him and he just looks so _grateful_ that Mondo’s doofy grin grows wider. Maybe it’s okay to be cheesy sometimes. Maybe it’s okay to be cheesy with Ishimaru. 

It takes a bit of work to get Ishimaru detached but after Ishimaru wipes off the bed and makes Mondo take off his jacket (he even folds it like Ishimaru says and doesn’t make a fuss) they get on together, elbows touching, just a little too close, and count the stars together. They lose track every time and never get them all but they keep it up until neither of them can keep their eyes open and they fall asleep together, still a little too close, inching closer, and as Mondo drifts off he can’t help but maybe think this isn’t so bad. If it can be like this all the time… maybe everything will work out. Maybe everything will be okay.


End file.
